/ :^^ 



DISPERSION OF THE LOUISIANxi LEGISLATURE AND THE 
GENERAL CONDITION OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 



SPEECH — — ^ 

?2~9 



HON. JOHN B. GORDON, 



Oy GEORGrIA, 



UNITED STATES SENATE, 



JANUARY Q9, 1875. 



AV A S H I N G T N : 

GOVEUNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1875. 



■9 




4 



SPEECH 

OF ' • • 

HON. JOHN B. GOEDON. 



The Senate having under consideration the resolution submitted by Mr. Schurz 
on the 8th of January, directing the Committee on the Judiciary to' inquire what 
legislation is necessary to secure to the people of the State of Louisiana their rights 
of self-government under the Constitution — 

Mr. GOK'DON said : 

Mr. I'RK.siDEXT : I am conipellecl to ask a hoaring on this subject once 
more. In my recent remarksin the Senate I did )ioi denounce, as has been 
Ko lounilly asserted, cither the Government of the United States, or the 
l)rescnt Administration or any man connected with it. I made no allu- 
sion to President Grant, none to General Sheridan, none to recent 
events in Louisiana. And althonj^h in a representative republic I 
can conceive of no higher duty of a citizen than to defend the princi- 
ples of his government and its adminiistralion Avheu right, or, on the 
otlicr hand, to criticise the latter when tcrowr/, yet I abstained from 
all discussion of these, exjiressly stating my purpose to do so for rea- 
sons given at tlie time. I rose tlien simi)ly to correct the erroneous 
impressions wliich prevailed here and to repel assaults made upon the 
southern people, and to express my abiding contidence that the spirit 
of animosity manifested in this debate was not the spirit of the north- 
ern people, srddiers or citizens. This, and only this. A]iprehen8ions, 
howevfi', exitrcsscd at the time, that the utterances of any southern 
man upon this lloor wcmld be misconstrued and misjudged, have been 
a bumlantly confirmed. 

liut, sir, no such violent demonstrations as we have witnessed, no 
such exhibitions of prejudice and of passion, however irritating under 
<ither circumstanees, should swerve from f he discharge of duty nor 
temjit an American Senator to descend from the height of this great 
argmncnt, nor silence his confident a^ipeals to reason and to the sense 
of justice of the.American people. 

AVhat are the <|uestious which we ouj-ht legitimately to discuss 
without i>assi(>n or prejudice ? 

First. Was the recently dispersed Legislature of Louisiana a law- 
ful body ? 

Second. Indejiendent of the question of its legality or illegality, 
was the Constitution of the United States by that dispersion broken ? 

Involved in those is a tliird (question, to which I shall give most of 
my time, namely, the general condition of the Southern States. 

As to the l(;gality of that body, I have heard but foiu' objections 
urged : 

First. That the clerk was prevented from propounding the ques- 
tion and deciding the result tipon the election of speaker ; 

Second. That that (piestion was ]uopounded, and the result declared 
in the midst of great excitement and confusion; 



Third. Tliat tlie yeas aud nays were not ordered and recorded upon 
the election of speaker ; and . ,. „ , i „ /i;^ ^«+ 

Fourth. That after the organization, five memhers who did not 
hold certificates of election were admitted to seats. 

I believe I have stated the questions and the olycctioiis fully aud 
fairlv. Now, it has been repeatedly said that it was the duty of 
this clerk to propound the question aiul declare the result. W hen 
the Senator fi-oni New York [Mr. Conklixg] on yesterday announced 
that he intended to show that such was the duty of the clei-lc, I was 
prepared to see some other law produced than that which has been 
so often quoted. The only provisions of la%y so far as the duty of 
the clerk is concerned may be found in section 44, act 98, 18/2, aud 
are in these words : 

That it shall bo the duty of the secretary of .state to transmit to the clerk of the 
house of rei^^re^entatives dnd the secretary of the senate of the Last Geneval Assem- 
W^a Ust of theSlmes of such persons asf accor.liug to theretunis, shall have^been 
ellctedt«eitlie.r branch of the General Assembly ; and it shall be the duty of the 
iLkl clerk and secretary to place the names of tbe represc^ .at.yes .u,d^enator| 
elect so furnished upon the roll of the house and of ttie s^a " ^l" ^ 'vd> and 
those representatives and senators whoso names are »" ^M' Vn,,.,. other 
secretary respectively, in accordance with the foregoing provision, ami none otlicr 
Slbe crJn 1 -t • t to. rgani.e the house of representatives or senate. >,othmg in 
thfs act shall be constiued to conflict with article 34 of the constitution. 

It will be perceived that the duty of the clerk by this law was to 
ascertain by his record thus made the constituent elements ot the 
Legislature, and not to preside aud proponn.l (juestu.us upon its, 
organization. He is not even required to call the roll, '"''l. ■'^I'Jl'^^.^:' 
this law is concerned, anv member might have p.-rlornicd this duty, 
althouoh this would have been at variance with par hamentary pro- 
cedure? But. sir. there is not one word in this law whicli reciuires ot 
the clerk anv such dutv as propoiuuling questions. These are tlie 
provisions which mav be found in all the other statutes upon this sub- 
iect. If there be any other law, let it be produced It not, we are 
forever precluded from urging this objocticn. Sir, I (hii.k I aui sate 
in saying there is no such law, either statutory or iau(hiuieutal, m 
the State of Ijouisiana. ^ , 

The honorable Senator from New York [Mr. Coxkung] on yester- 
day cited the case of thePresbyterian General Assembly from the 1 eni- 
svivania courts, the Commonwealth vs. Green, 4 Wharton, pages 
351 to GOG. Sir, a thorough examination of that cast; will show that 
it is not anah.gous. except in the lemotest degree, to the one under 
discussion here. With all due respect for the greaflegal a|'il'<;es of 
the Senator from New York, I must express my surprise at lus^ reliance 
upon a case so utterlv at variance in its facts with those of the oi- 
gauization of this dispersed Louisiana Legislature. 

In Louisiana, Mr. Billien, a member, moved that ^Ir- ^^1^^ '^« 
made chairman! and. ignoring the'clerk, put the nn^stion and dec ared 
it carried. In the Presbyterian General Assembly of Pen isjlvania 
a member, Mr. Cleveland, moved that Dr.Beman be made the tempo- 
rary chainuan. and, ignoring the moderator, put the question and 
declared it carried. Thus far the two cases are analogous, but no 
further. The prime facts upon. which hang the whole question ot 
legality not only differ in the two cases, but are m direct conflict and 
ut^ierly destroy the whole base of the Senator s argument. Now, sir, 

""lu^Louisiana, the clerk who was ignored by Billieu had no legal 
status whatever in that body save to place the names of member*, 
upon the roil. It is not pretended that there is an.y law, constitu- 



tioual or statutory, which required him to preside ami jnit motions 
and declare results. 

But in Pennsylvania, the moderator whom Cleveland ignored is 
expressly made hy the constitution of the church itself and hy its 
laws the proper and only organ to preside during the organization 
and to put motions and declare results. One clause of the constitu- 
tion of the church, article 2, defining the duties of moderator, says 
he shall "require the members * * * always to address the 
chair." In all questions he shall stale " the object of the vote," and 
"shall ihtn declare how the question is decided." In article 3 of the 
church constitution it is also prescribed " the moderator * * * 
shall be chosen from year to year," * * * <; jjm| shall hold the 
chau' until a new moderator is chosen." 

Here, then, the law upon which the church rests and which pre- 
scribes the office of moderator, defines his duties and the fime of 
holding office and declares that he and he only shall preside, except in 
his absence, when some one else may be called to the chair ; and he 
and he onlj- shall jjut motions and declare results. A motion there- 
fore put and declared by any one else was clearly illegal, revolution- 
ary, and void. Sir, where is the law in Louisiana or anywhere else 
requiring of a clerk any such duties, or conferring ujion him any 
such powers ? It does not exist. What becomes, then, of the Sena- 
tor's argu-ment ? In this church case cited by the Senator from New 
York the chief justice, delivering the opinion of the court, says: 
" When the organization of the whole had proceeded to a certain point 
by the instrumentality of the moderator of the preceding session, 
who for that purpose was the constitutional organ," &c. In another 
place the court declare him " the established oryan," &c. In still 
another, " he was the mechanical Instrument of their organization, and till 
that teas accomplished theg were subject to his rule." 

Now, sir, whenever the Senator from New York or the majority of 
the Senate produce any such law, or any law whatever, declaring it 
the duty of the clerk, and none other, to preside, to put motions, and 
declare results, then the country will agree that the act of Mr. Bil- 
lieu in ignoring the clerk of the Louisiana Legislature was an illegal 
act ; but not till then. 

Article '2-2 of the constitution of Louisiana declares that the Hoiise 
shall choose its speaker and other officers ; but how it shall choose 
theiu, whether viva voce or by ballot, whether by electing a temporary 
chairman, whether upon the motion of a member put by the clerk 
or by the member making it, is left entirely within the discretion of 
that body. 

As to the secoml objection, I have only to .say, that if putting a 
question and declaring a result in the midst of excitement and con- 
fusion be vali<l, it would destroy the legality of a large number of 
Legislatures in the United States. 

The third objection is that the yeas and nays were not ordered 
and recorded upon the election of speaker. The honorable Senator 
from New .lersey [Mr. Fkklinghuysex] and the honorable Senator 
from Ohio [Mr. Siikrman] have both labored long and ably to show 
that there was in this a palpable viohition of law. There is no proof, 
so far as I have seen, that the call for the yeas and nays ever reached 
the ear of the propouuder of the motion. If it did not, then in point 
of law it was really never made. But suppose the yeas and nays 
were called and that the call reached the ear of the mover of that 
resolution, and he by a wrong decision overruled this call and arbi- 
trarily refused to put it, would that render illegal the organization 



6 

of that body? If so, it places it witliiu the powei- of auy presiding 
officer of a legislative assembly, by au mipavliameiitary, illegal, or 
Tinconstitutional ruling, to dissipate tlie legality of any body and 
resolve it into its original elements. That portion of the constitution 
of Louisiana recited by these honoraV)le Senators which requires the 
yeas and nays to be recorded upon the journal at the desire of any 
two members does not, cannot by any nile of legal or parliamentary 
construction, refer to the election of officers, but it refers to legislative 
proceedings, to lef/islatire action. This is the objection upon which 
Senators on the other side most rely. But it will be clearly seen, 
Mr. President, that it cnnnot apply to elections ; for you cannot force 
the yeas and nays upon, the choice of officers if there be more than 
one candidate. Mr. A may choose to vote for Mr. D,"and Mr. B for 
X ; so that the construction of any portion of the constitution which 
would render that clause inapplicable must of necessity 1>e a wrong 
construction. This objection, then, falls to the ground also. 

As to the fourth objection, that after the organization members were 
admitted to seats who held no certificates, it is sufficient to say that 
the body when organized had a i)erfect right to decide upon the qual- 
ifications, elections, and returns of its members, and no other power 
had this right. That body could go behind the returning board and 
take into consideration all the primary facts. 

But we are told that if the organization, by the refusal to allow 
the clerk to put the motion was not in violation of law, it was incon- 
sistent with settled i)recedent. That ]iosition, INIr. President, is as 
untenable as the other. In this very State of Ijouisiaua the Legisla- 
ture of 180H must have been organized in a similar manner. If it be 
objected that there was no clerk holding over from a jireceding 
Legislature to discharge that duty, then this objection is of itself a 
sufficient answer to the entire position, that the clerk must propound 
the question and declare the result. But we shall have use presently 
for a much higher precedent, one by whose force a Senator now holds 
his place on this floor. I refer to the Alabama contested-election 
case. 

Now, sir, in order to test the validity of all these objections, let us 
group and contrast the facts of these two cases. The facts of the Ala- 
bama case are fresh in our memories. They stand adjudicated by the 
judgment of a majority of the Senate. They are recorded in its pro- 
ceedings, and are recited in the speech of the honorable Senator 
from Indiana, [Mr. Morton,] from which I shall quote. 

What are those facts? In Alabama a republican body meet in a 
court-house, a place unknown to any former Legislature. In Louisi- 
ana a democratic or conservative body meet in tlie State-house. 

In Alabama they are without any quorum of those who hold certifi- 
cates according to law. In Louisiana they have largely more than a 
quorum of those who hold such certificates. 

In Alabama they organize under officere unknown to the law, and 
in direct, open, palpable, acknowledged violation of the fundamental 
law of that State — the constitution of Alabama. In Louisiana they 
are organized, as I have sho^ni, whatever may be said of irregulari- 
ties, without any violation of law, and at least with greater conform- 
ity to constitutional requirement. Yet this Alabama republican Leg- 
^ lature, convening at a court-house with less than a quorum, with 
no clerk to call the roll, organized in absolute violation of the consti- 
tution of the State, is allowed to .send its representative to this Cham- 
ber, and a majority receives him. In Louisiana a conservative body, 
organized certainly with greater conformity to law, with a quorum 



present, witli the roll called by th3 clerk, is dispersed by the Army ; 
aud that same majority in this Chamber api)rove. 

Mr. President, is it possible that the American people in the face of 
these facts will snstain the Senate in snch a procednre ? 

Informalities ! What did the Senator from Indiana say in the 
Alabama case ? Then informalities were not at all of essence. Then 
the absence even of a quornm was not vital. Then the meeting in a 
place unknown to former Legislatnres was not vital. Then the 
admission of members withont certificates was not vital. Then a 
palpable A'iolation of the constitution of the State of Alabama, as he 
acknowledges himself was the case, was not vital. That was a repub- 
lican body. But now, in a conservative body, iri'egularities, excite- 
ment, and informalities, the admission of members without certifi- 
cates, are so vital, that they justify the dispersion of a Legislature by 
the Army. 

Does the Senator reply, as he did, that subsequent examination 
showed that those who held no certificates in Alabama were really 
elected f The reply is that subsequent investigation shows that 
those who were excluded in Louisiana were also really elected. How 
then, let me ask, is the reception of members without certificates by 
a rejiublican Legislature a lawful procedure, while the very same act 
is, when done by conservatives, a gross fraud ? How is a republican 
Legislature thus constituted competent to elect a United States Sen- 
ator, while a conservative Legislature similarly constituted is to be 
regarded as a riotous mob ? 

The honorable Senator from Indiana was either right or wrong in 
the Alabama case. If he was right then, he is wrong now; for it is 
logically impossible that he can be right in both. If he was wrong 
in the Alabama case, then a Senator holds his place, to use the strong- 
language employed by the Senator from Indiana, by a fraud and the 
body which sent him here was a mob. If he was right in the Ala- 
bama case, then unquestionably a lawful body in Louisiana has been 
dispersed by the United States Army and the Senator approves. Let 
him take either horn of the dilemma. 

Sir, these conclusions are too logical to require argument. The 
facts are clear, pertinent, and overwhelming, and there is no escape 
from them. 

Ah, sir, the Senator fiom New York [Mr. Conkling] was right 
yesterday when he said that times change and men change with 
them. Let me para])hrase that a little, and apply it to the course 
pursued by that honi>ra1»]c Senator and the majority of this body in 
the cases of the republican Legislature of Alabama and the conserv- 
ative Legislature of Louisiana. I mean no disrespect when I put it 
thus — party necessities change, and with them the majority changes 
its ideas of constitutional law. AVhen party necessity requires it, a 
republican body, organized in acknowledged violation of the State 
constitution, is held constitutional enough to elect a Senator. When 
a conservative body is organized with certainly far less of irregularity 
it is held illegal, a fraud and a mob, to be dispersed by the Army. 

Mr. Presitlent, the people of the United States have not lost all 
ideas of law and consistency and they will never snstain the Senate 
in a course in conflict with both. 

It will be obsei'ved that I have made no comment upon the officers 
of the Army or their action ; nor is it my purpose to do so now, for 
reasons of a peculiar character. But inasmuch as there seems to be 
an injlexible purpose to mistake all that I can say, I beg to reproduce 



as my present sent iaieals words uttered by me upon another occasion. 
I said : 

I maj; as well express an opinion here wliich I have often expressed in'private, 
and which I nowi'epeat in tliis most public [manner, namely, that had the questions 
■which have so disturbed the country been left to the soldiers of the two armies 
after the suirender, we should have had less of ill-will between the sections. 

It was my fortune, as the commander of one wiug of the southern army at Ap- 
pomattox, to be selected to confer with the general officers of the Federal Army as 
to the terms of surrender and parole. Let me state a fact which ought to be re- 
corded as most honorable to the commanders of the successful army. In the long 
conference between us no word of exultation escaped the lips of these commanders ; 
but, on the contrary, they avoided any semblance of exultation which might in- 
crease the grief of the defeated. 

So careful were these officers, that they declined to speak of battles in which they 
had been successful, and with a consideration aiul defeieuce which deeply im- 
pressed me, turned the conversation to engagements in which they themselves had 
been defeated. 

The soldiers of both armies can but resi)ect each othi.'r. Alike, they were hou- 
ent, earnest, and true to their convictions. Alike, they enduied the fatigue of the 
march, the privations of the camp, and the lonely bivouac of the i)icket. Alike, 
tliey felt the chagrin of defeat and the glory of %ictory ; and together these soldiers 
would have united in writing the epitaph of the dead of both armies. "They fell in 
the discharge of duty." 

To show the feeling of generous regard which pervades the whole 
hody of confederate soldiers, I wish to have read the resolutions 
adopted by the survivors' association of confederates, held in Macon, 
Georgia. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

Resolved, That this association is not intended to keep alive the passions arou-sod 
by the late civil war, but for the purpose of perpetuating the memories of our 
fallen comrades in arms, who illustrated upon tlie battle-field, when opposed to 
those were at that time their foes, the heroism and fortitude of true American 
soldiers ; and, further, to aftbrd such aid and support as iu oiu- power lies to their 
widows and orplians. 

Resolved, Tliat we cordially greet all true northern men who fought against us 
in our late unfortunate struggle as f oomeu worthy of our steel, and award to them 
the same meed of praise that we claim for the confcil(>rate soldii^r. 

Resolved, Adopting the motto, "United we stand, divided we fall." we long to see 
the day when all the brave men now living wlio wore the " blue' and the "gray" 
may be once more fully united in feeling and sentiment, and our whole country 
restored to peace and prosperity. 

Mr. GORDON. As further evidence of the fact that I have not 
been mistaken iu the spirit of the northern or .sontlieru people, .sol- 
diers or citizens, I beg to refer to another fact, which reflects honor 
upon both sections. 

At tliQ last confederate memorial service in the city of Montgomery, 
Alabama, a gallant confederate officer delivered an address, which 
was reproduced in the northern press. It chanced to fall under the 
eye of a northern woman, who caused to be sent to that confederate 
oflficer a beautiful goblet, with these words engraved upon it : 

From a northern woman, widowed and bereft of her sons by the war, to Major 
Thomas G. Jones, of Montgomery, Alabama, as a token of appreciation of his manly 
and generous words in reference" to the northern dead. 

As further e^^dence of the fact that I did not misjudge when I said 
that the constant references in this debate to those who were here by 
the clemenei; of the Government and the bitter anathemas daily poured 
out against the southern people did not find an echo in the hearts of 
northern soldiers and citizens, and that such efforts would fail to 
tire the North with these dead pas.sions and consolidate the people of 
that section for furtl.er oppression of the South, I lieg to have read 
from the desk the letter of one who is the equal iu all resi>ects except 



9 

in official position of any upon this floor — a man whom I never saw, 
but who is vouched for by a leading reirablieau Senator here as a 
gentleman of the highest character. I ask the Clerk to read that 
portion which I have marked. This is one of very many letters of 
similar character which have reached me. 
The Secretary read as follows : 

I have read with interest your speech in the Senate of yestorday, as reported 
by the Associated Press, and I desire to thank you for the spirit and teinper dis- 
))layed in it. I do not wonder that you are indignant in -sdew of what has been 
done and said. * * " j_ am very glad you were so guarded and temperate in 
your coniTuents. * * * That yoii may imderstand that it is not from democrats 
alone at the North that you are to expect sympathy and friendship for the South, 
I will mention that I was three years in "the Union Army, was in three of the 
prisons of the South, and have always voted the repuhlican ticket since that party 
wa.s formed ; yet I am indignant at what has been done in New Orleans this week, 
and I have seen mucli to condemn in the party with which I voted in its treatment 
of the South for several years, and I know that very many republicans feel as I 
do at this time on this eutu-e subject. 

As you said yesterday, the ditferences of the war are in the past. Divisions be- 
tween citizen.s of our common country must be by other lines than those which 
separated us at Kiehmond and Petersburgh, when we of the twenty-fourth army 
corps came to have such hearty respect for yourself as a soldier, and for the brave 
men whom yon led so gallantly. Indeed 1 may say what I presimie you know, 
that the old soldiers of the Union Army have a peculiar attachment to and confi- 
dence in those who stood over against them in the confederate army, and fought out 
their differences to the end. 

I write this to you personally. I do not Tvish to be brought into any public politi- 
cal controversy.' * * * I only speak as I do because I know that many repubU- 
caiis who were Union .soldiers feel as I do ou these questions, and I want you to 
understand this. 

The true-hearted and sore-tried southerners who have borne themselves with 
patience and bravery under circumstances the most perplexing have the respect 
and warmest 8ym])atby of many, very many, at the North who were ojtposed to them 
in the days of war, and are not at one witli them in political questions. 

Mr. GORDON. Once more. I sh.all now read the closing paragraph 
of a proclamation issued under circumstances not dissimihir to those 
wliich sniTound us now and which we are discussing — issued by one 
who in all the qualities that make up a great soldier, in efficiency, 
in ability, in courage, in devotion to his flag and his country, was the 
equal of any, and who without doubt was one of the knightliest soldiers 
of the Federal Army ; one whose sword, while war lasted, was ever 
gleaming in the front of battle, but who when war was ended laid his 
uutariiislicd blade on the altar of civil law. I refer to Major-General 
Winfli'ld S. Hancock. I will read: 

Solemnly impressed with these views the general announces that the great prin- 
ciples of American liberty are still the laufid inheritance of thin people, and ever should 
be. The right of trial by juri/, the habeas corpus, the liberty of the press, the freedom of 
speech, thenatural rights of xiersons, and the rights of property, must be preserved. 

These are words, sir, which ought to be stamped on the records of 
this land as thoy are on the hearts of that same peoxjle who to-day 
pl(>a(l for a restoration of their civil government. 

But to resume the argument. The second question is, whether the 
Con.stitntion of the United States was broken in the dispersion of the 
Louisiana Lcgislatuie ? It does not matter so far as this question is 
concerned whetlier that body was legal or illegal. It will not be 
seriously urged, I presume, that a condition of atfairs existed at the 
time of that dispersion which could by any possibility bring the use of 
troops within tlie purview of the Federal Constitution. There is no 
word in all the length and breadth of that instrument which contem- 
plates, even remotely, that the Federal Army or Federal authority 
shall decide upon the constituent elements of a Legislature; nor is 



10 

it any excuse to say Kellogg ordered it. Kellogg had no more right 
to determine whether five men Avho were ejected were entitled to 
seats there than you had ; nor had he any right to arrest one claim- 
ing to be a member. That body could just as lawfully, by the same 
instrumentality, have arrested him and ejected him and his subordi- 
nates and his courts from their positions. The constitution of Louisi- 
ana provides expressly for i>olice regulations for kecijing order, for 
the arrest of pei-sons, for the compelling of attendance, and for the 
expulsion of members by its own powers and officers, and this prerog- 
ative belongs nowhere else. Nor does it strengthen the case to plead 
that the conservatives fir.st asked the military to keep order in the 
galleries or to clear the galleries. The request by a body itself that 
order shall be kept in the galleries, or thai the galleries shall be cleared 
by an outside force, certainly cannot logically be pleaded as an excu,se 
for the invasion of that body and for an inquiry by the invading force 
into the rights of members, with power to disperse. 

But I will not pursue this argument further. 

These positions have not been met because they cannot be mot. 
The Senator from New York, who has just taken his seat, spent much 
time in proving how small a difficulty might be regarded in law as a 
riot ; but he failed to show either that there was a riot in the Louisi- 
ana Legislature, and, if there was, by what law such riot justified 
the Army or Kellogg in deciding who were and who were not entitled 
to seats in that Ijody. 

No other Senator on the other side of the Chamlier, I think, has as 
yet come any nearer to the great constitutional question. When 
asked to jjoiut out the law which authorized that intervention, the 
reply is, "murders," "assassinations," "White Leagues," "opposi- 
tion to the civil-rights bill." Such evasions of the true issue will 
not divert the American pe()j)le from the startling fact that the law 
has been broken by those who, under the law, are made conservators 
of the hiAv. 

The honorable Senator from Ohio [Mr. Sherman] said the other day 
that in this government of the people by the people the majority must 
rule. I prefer to say that in this goverument of the ])eople, the sover- 
eignty of the people must express itself through a majority in accord- 
ance with law. Sir, the law is our greatest sovereign. An old English 
jurist, the greatest of them all, said that even " the king in his realm 
had two suiieriors, God and the laws." The people of Arragon said 
to their chosen monarch, " there is one between us and thee greater 
than thyself; it is the law." Our fathers said that no uum, however 
exalted his position or lueritorious his services, should ever tran.sgres8 
the law ; and that its ]>rotection sliould extend forever, to remotest 
generations, to themselves and their jiosterity, embracing the hum- 
blest and the vilest citizen of the land. And in every country, in 
every age, wherever justice is administered or freedom has a foot- 
hold, the law has been a restraint upon majorities, a protection to 
minorities; higher than sovereigns, stronger than armies — the sole 
a'gis of liberty. 

Why, sir, what protection is there for the East against the popu- 
lous West, or for the AVest against a combination of the East and 
Middle States, if the law is not arbiter ? It will not do to say that 
in this enlightened age majorities will do no wrong. They wiU do 
wrong. The history of all popular governments that ever existed 
upon earth proves the truth of the assertion. You can just as easily 
break down the dikes and save Holland, as break down the bar- 
riers of the law and save liberty. No, sir ; whenever the Constitu- 



11 

tion and the laws cease ro protect, then in seme mad honr lawless 
majorities, democrats as well as repnblicanSj will tramjile the rights 
of minorities and liberty in the dust. 

Bnt if I were before ignorant as to the reply which I shall receixe 
to this argument as to the value of law, the expressions which this 
debate has evoked have quite undeceived me. I shall be told that the 
South Ls a good lield in which to talk of law; that the Senator from^ 
Georgia had better turn his attention there ; that lawlessness, disor- 
der, murder, and assassination exist there as organized institutions. 

I understand that, and I accept the issue with all its responsibil- 
ities and fearful consequences to that ill-fated section. I accept it, 
and I stand or fall with my section by the record which I shall to-day 
make up from the evidence. I shall produce nothing that is not 
established on the testimony of witnesses whom no Senator will dare 
to impeach. 

I say I accept the issue, although if I could be deterred by the 
misconstruction which has already been placed upon my utterances 
in the Senate, or by the flagrant, palpable, and willful mLsrepresenta- 
tion of my words by the extreme press, I should be deterred. But, 
sir, I do not misapjjrehend this effort. There is no mistaking the 
spirit with which constant allusion is made upon this floor to men 
who sit here or sit somewhere eLse by the ''clemency of the Govern- 
ment." I know very well that it is intended to silence my voice in 
its appeals for justice to the magnanimons heart of a great people. 
But, sir, this loud refrain, "traitors and rebels,'^ will not diown the 
appeals for law and peace and self-government when addressed to 
an American audience. 

I shall not dispute with Senators as to the courtesy of such alln- 
«ons. We all have our ideas of courtesy and courage ; and we are 
all entitled to them. I have no disposition to deprive any Senator 
of his right to display both as is most agreeable to himself. But I 
repeat, gentlemen diifer in their estimates of courage as well as of 
courtesy. There is a courage which is calm, firm, dignified, and self- 
poised in the presence of danger and when men have arms in their 
hands. There is another coniage which culminates when the antag- 
onist is disarmed and deprived of the possibility of defense. There 
is a courage like that of Henry of Xovarre, of Hoche. and of Han- 
cock ; and there is the courage of Falstafl', stabbing and insulting 
the body of the dead Hotspur. 

Bat, sir, whatever may be thought of such allusions, I shall never 
so far forget. I trust, the courtesies which my own self-respect de- 
mand as to retaliate in kind. 

This war cannot last forever. It has been now ten years since the 
last gun was fired in a conflict where brave Americans met, each 
solemnly impressed with the justice of his caiLse. and ready to give 
hie life in obedience to his convictions. It was an honest difference 
of opinion ; it was a conflict of theories of the Government we had in- 
herited from our fathers. As to the purposes of the southern people 
in their movement, let me quote a paragraph from the utterances of 
one whose conservative course for the last three years has won the 
contidenee of every section. I allude to Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, of 
Mississippi : 

Tbey certainly did not conspire or attempt to subvert yottr form of government 
or to destroy yoar Con stitntion or to depose your rulers. VTheD their secession was 
consummated they left the United States the United States stilL a great and pow- 
erful nation, with" its extended sea-coast, its teeming population, its vast extent of 
territory, its m-'chanic arts, its commerce, its Constitution safe, its laws unoli- 
etmcted. its administration uiiembarras.sed, its magistiacy. Federal State, andlocal. 



12 

with unimpairea autliority. Do not say, tlifiu, that we attempted to overthrow your 
Governnient; for there it stood, after" we left you, one of the greatest and iaost 
pi)werful nationalities upon the face of the eartli. 

There was no dispute between the two sections about the form of government. 
Devotion to the Constitution, to the principles of American fi-eedom, was the foun- 
tain at which both sections drank in inspiration for the stupendous war which they 
maintained. And when that war closed with defeat for the South and victory for 
the North the controversy was closed also. The result of that victory has been to 
embody in the Constitution two great principles — the legal indissolubility of the 
American Union and the universality of human freedom on the American conti- 
nent. 

Mr. GOEDON. One other remark I "wish to make iii this connec- 
tion. It is this: When this country shall he united and concord and 
confideuee restored, and whena contiict with foreign powers shall come, 
that then some of those who now are badgered on this floor by some 
of the victors, will be found as near the front and spilling their blood 
as freely in the common defense and for the life of the Eepublic, as their 
insatiate judges. 

But I have been betrayed into a digressioii. I have said that in 
making up the record as to the condition of the South I should intro- 
duce no witness who.se integrity and truth would be impeached. I 
shall not attempt to answer the a'bsurd charges of intimidation in dis- 
tricts where both parties indorsed the same candidate, nor to reply 
to statements drawn from sources inaccessible to the public and from 
hearsay and ritmor. 

Mr. President, as a sample of some of the testimony which has 
been introduced, I refer you to evidence recently taken before a 
committee in the other end of the Capitol. A witness in the last few 
days appeared and testified that at Eufaula, Alabama, in the last 
campaign, I had made a speech in which I advised the democrats of 
Alabama to carry the election ])y force. There is the same amount 
of truth in that charge as in many othersniade against the South; 
and the facts are that I made no such speech anywhere. I was not 
within three hiuidred mih's of Eufaula at the time, and have made 
no political speech in Alabama at any point for live years. Yet there 
stands the testimony. 

Among the witnesses I introduce there will be no " Jack Browns," 
who run for office first upon one side and then ux)on tlie other, demo- 
crat in 1872 and republican in 1874, and always beaten on both. 
[Laughter.] I shall not introduce any Avitness who assigns as his 
reason for becoming a candidate for Congress the fact that he had 
failed at everything else and was obliged to have an otfice. I prefer 
a difi'erent class of witnesses and a different kind of testimony. 

Georgia is stronger democratic than any of the gulf States; and if 
the southern people are, as represented, such oppressors of the negroes 
and republicans, if, indeed, it be true tSiat no man could live in the 
South and be a republican, if the whites had possession of their 
State governments, certainly there ought to exist in Georgia a reign 
of terror, of lawlessness, and of blood which, as the Senator from 
Indiana charges, I could not resist. 

What is the condition of Georgia society ? I ask to have read a 
telegram from a gentleman who is very Avell known here, who bears 
an honored name — a northern man who has voted the republican 
ticket since that party Avas organized, who has the confidence of the 
present Administration and but a few months ago held a position 
under it. He is a gentleman ; and such liaA'e always found and will 
ueA'er fail to find hospitality beneath a southern roof as long as there 
is money left to extend it. " The witness is Mr. W. C. Morrill, lately 
of Maine. I ask the Secretary to read his telegram. 



13 

The Secretary read as follows : 

ATL-tsTA, Georgia, January, 9, Ifirs. 
Hon. John B. Gordo.v, 

United States Senator, Washington. 
The treatment I have received from the people of Georgia during a residence of 
nine years has been more tlian kind, and better than 1 dest-rve. 

W. C. MORRILL. 

Mr. GORDON. I ask also to have read a telegram from the same 
gentleman, who was the Freedmeu's Bureau agent, audought toha\'e 
some knowledge of the subject-matter of which he speaks. I wish 
the country to know what Mr. Morrill has to say of the treatment of 
negroes in the democratic State of Georgia. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

Atlanta, Georgia, January 12, 1875. 
Hon. John B. Gorhon, 

Washinijton : 

For the last four years my residence has been in the city, and during that time 
have had no reason'to believe that the colored people have been treated different 
from any class of laborers. Prior to that time and while I was agent of the Freed- 
men's Bniean, I found very little if any bad treatment fiom former slaveholders, but 
all trouble that came to my knowledge almost invariably was from that class that 
never owned eitlier land or slaves, t)ut usually rented. I think you will find the 
above substantiated by nearly all the late intelligent agents of the Bureau. 

W. C. MORRILL. 

Mr. GORDON. I ask now to have read a telegram from the gov- 
ernor of my State as to the educational privileges of the two races in 
Georgia. 
The Secretary read as follows : ' 

Atlanta. Geoecha, January 12, 1875. 
Hon. J. B. Gordon. 

United States Senator, TTashington : 
No distinction between whites and blacks. Under our school laws the whites pay 
upon two hundred and sixty-six millions of property, the blacks upon six millions 
of property : of general taxes, about one-fiftieth paid by blacks; of poll-tax, about 
one-touth paid by blacks. Over foity-two thousand colored children, at pu))lic 
schools last year ■ about ninety-thousand white children. 

JAMES M. SMITH. 

Mr. GOUDON. Now I a,sk to liave some brief extracts read from a 
very long letter Avritten by Mr. W. H. Savage, of New York, who has 
been teaching colored schools in Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and 
Alabama for the last four years. I have selected a few jiassages 
which 1 will ask the Ch^rk to read. If any Senator desires to hear 
the whole letter, I should be glad to have it read. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

For the last few yeais I have been engaged in the work of educating the colored 
people. *' * * * « 

An expericTH'o of over four years in the South (in Tennessee, Alabama, Missis- 
sippi, anil (icoruia) has taught me that the people of the South are able to lay aside 
little political dillerence.s in ojunion and welcome a gentleman as such if he comes 
among them as an honest man, let him be from whatever section he may. 

And I give it as my honest opinion that most of the .so-called outrages are nothing 
more than occur in any otlicr Stat<> froTii time to time, but here every lawless deed 
of any outcast and riulian is distorted into enmity toward the Federal Government. 

I have known many instances where villainous carpet-bag politicians have been 
allowed to leave tlie cduntry with much less punishment than tli(y merited ; for all 
must know that the Soutli is Hooded with a class of men who folbiwed the armies 
and have scattered themselves thrcmghout the South — men who would not be re- 
cognized in any rcspectabU) household of the North; and yet they complain that 
th(\V are not welcomed into the families of people whose characters they malign 
most unscrupulously fur seltisli political ends. 

Hastily, 

W. H. SAVAGE, 
Principal Excelsior Colored School, Oriftn, Oeorgia. 



14 

Mr. GORDON. Other testimony from equally respectable republi- 
can sources could be introduced. But, sir, what is the use, when none 
but those who defame are believed? When your own republican' 
committee, appointed by a rc])ublican Congress, is charged with mak- 
ing a u-hifewashivg report. It cannot have been forgotten that Gen- 
eral Grant himself made a tour of the Southern States since the war, 
and that he reported what he saw and heard. Yet even General 
Grant was charged with "io/*('^eR'rt.s7fni(7" the southern people. Gen- 
eral Grant has not been in the South since, and all the informa- 
tion Avith reference to that section which has reached him or bis 
subordinates, has come through those whose l)usiness and interest it 
has been to slander that people for the last nine years. 

Mr. President, as illustrative of these times, I shall now read a 
paragraph from the history of Titus Gates and the great " popish 
plot," which, with change of dates and names, would fitly describe 
the present condition of the South. If you will substitute for Titus 
Oates the "carpet-bagger" and southern people for CaihoUcs, you will 
have a perfect daguerreotype of southern socaety under the rule of 
adventurers. 

Speaking of Titus Oates, the great prototype of the present carpet- 
bag declaimer upon southern outrages, the historian says : 

He caused a written narrative of a pon.spiracy of the .Jesuits to murder the king 
and subvert the Piotestaut religion to be drawii up and laitl before the kin;;. 

The king saw they were monstrous falsehoods, and paid no atten- 
tion to them. He then, says the historian — 

Enlarged his fiction, and in September made a deposition before Sir Edmondbnry 
Godfrey, a justice of the peace. He added to his story at various times ; and th© 
t<ubstance of it finally was that * * * the Jesuits were the authors of the grt«it 
fire of 16GP, and that they were then plotting to burn all the shipping in the 
Thames. At a given signal the Catholics were to rise and massacre all the Prot- 
estants in the kingdom. * * * * * » *• 

Some color was lent to the suspicion by the deatji ***** of the magis- 
trate before whom Oatos's deiiosition" had been taken. The body was car- 
ried to the grave with every demonstration of popular excitement. Sir Edmond- 
bury Godfrey was styled a martyr to the I'rotestant cause. " The capital and tho 
whole nation," says Macaulay, " went mad with hatred ami fear. The penal laws, 
which had begun to lose something of their edge, were sharjiened anew." 

"Almost in a moment he was raised from beggary to wealth." 

Just as the carpet-bagger has been in the -South. 

Says Eoger North : 

Ho walked about with his guards, assigned for fear of the i)apists miu-dering him . 

Fit archetype of our political adventurer, seeking the guard of 
United States trooyis to protect his person ; and, like our modern Titus 
Oates, he was, says the historian, "called, or most bhisphemously 
called himself, the savior of the nation." 

We have many saviors among us. [Laughter.] 

"Whoever he pointed at was taken up and committed. 

As in Alabama, as I shall i)resently prove upon the authority of a 
Federal official — 

His example was imitated by a multitude of the most despicable wretches of 
London, one of whom swore that he had been oflered canonization and £500 t» 
murder the king. 

How many assassination plotshave our Titusesdiscovered? [Laugh- 
ter, t 

!No lie was too gross to l)e believed against the Catholics, [the snvtherners.] No 
c\-idence was suffered to weigh in their favor. At last the utter improbability of 
Oates's story, his frequent self-contradictions, and his notoriously bad character, 
began to be considered. 



15 

A few more revelatious of the characters of our BuUockes, Blodgetts, 
Kelloggs, and Ludeliugs will uncover the real character of our 
Oateses. 

►Sir, history will never record a truer story of the state of affairs 
at the vSouth than that which is here given, except that where England 
had one Titus Gates the South has a hundred. Every negro and 
every republican killed in a broil is canonized as a modern Sir 
Godfrey, and a martyr to liberty and the faith. 

Ah, Mr. President, is it any wonder that a people so circumstanced 
and so systematically slandered are restive? Bereft of all possibility 
of defense, disarmed, plundered, and powerless ; every friend who 
defends or lifts the voice of sympathy in their fearful crucifixtion 
denounced as a sympathizer witli murderers and assassins! O, sir, 
is it any wonder they are restive ? 

Is it not rather a source of uumingled surprise that they have not 
long since yielded their hope and madlj- followed the temptations of 
despair? 

One more witness before I leave Georgia. I put the Senate upon 
notice that this witness is a white man, a democrat, and a southern 
man. But he can tell the truth notwithstanding. I am awaTe that 
the place of his birth, his color, and his politics discredit him very 
much in this Chamber, but I may as well remark here, in passing, 
that it is just as great a mistake to suppose that all the honesty and 
all the truth among us are concentered in the adventurers in our 
midst, who have brought ruin to that section and carry strife wher- 
ever thej/ go, as to suppose that these virtues were monopolized by 
Aim who brought ruin to paradise and carries strife -wherever he, 
goes. The witness I now propose is my neighbor and my friend, and 
a gentleman of character; but as he is a democrat, in order to give 
him standing with the majority of the Senate, I jirefcr to have him 
indorsed by the present republican member of Congress from his dis- 
trict. [Laughter.] 

The Secretary read as follows : 

HofSE OF Repkf.sentatives, 
Washiaylon, D. C, Ja7iuari/25, 1875. 
Tliis is to certify that I know (Colonel K. A. Alston, of Atlanta, Georgia, to be a 
goutlemau of tlio highest cliaracter iu every respect. 

J. C. FKEEMAN, 
Member of Congress, Fifth District, Georgia. 

Mr. GORDON. That is a good indorsement. 

Here is liis telegram in reference to the condition of two colored 
men wlm were tenants upon his place. I want this telegram read ; 
for, while it refers to but two men, it shows the Titter falsity of the 
charges tliat tlie negro is wronged even in the i>opulons white sec- 
tions of that democratic State. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

Atlanta, Georgia, January 20, 1875. 
General John B. Goudon, 

• Senate Chamber, Washington, D. C: 
Lawrence ha<l, 25th of last Dccfinber, four fine mules, a hnniiv, rarriajo, two 
good wagons, six hunflred linshrls dirn, three hundred bushels [potatoes, fodder, 
hay, a thousand bearing; fruit-fiei-s, and cattle, hogs, and poultry, and live years' 
lease on the land. Bill Ezzard's condition was still better, ha^^ng a tine Morgan 
bugjry-horae in addition to mules, two tliousand fruit-trees, cooking-stove, sewing- 
machine, and every comfort that any lal)oring man could desire. General Dodge, 
of .Statistical Bureau, has been on my place and knows how they lived. In addi- 
tion they have four muskets and shot-guns. 

K. A. ALSTON". 



10 

Mr. GORDON. Sir, I know those colored men. Their treatment at 
the hands of the hmd-owner was but a sample of that accorded to 
the Idack race in the democratic State of Georgia and all over the 
South. If, as the Senator from New York has just declared, the 
record of the whites of Louisiana has been one of God-daring and 
man-hating ferocity, why in reason's name do not these hellish pas- 
sions record themselves in blood in Georgia, which has been for years 
in democratic hands? 

Great stress has been laid upon the outbreaks in Louisiana ;. but, 
sir, bloody as tliey have been, whatever the causes, the President 
himself seems to have been imposed upon in some particulars. Upon 
what other hy|>othesis are we to explain the statement in his message 
that all the Colfax "miscreants go un whipped of justice," in the face 
of the fact that many were arrested, tried before Judge Woods of the 
circuit court, and live convicted; and that the very decision which 
the President quotes has undergone I'evision and reversal by Jlr. 
Justice Bradley, of the Supreme Court ? 

Is it true that the murders in the South are perpetrated by domo- 
ocrats or white peojde solely ? Let an otilicial record si)eak. I hold 
in my hand the record of tlie one hundred and two lunrdeis commit- 
ted in the last few years in the city of New Orleans, of which seventy- 
three were by radicals and twenty-nine by democrats, eight by black 
women, and one by a white woman. If ajiy one calls for it let it be 
read. 

Mr. WEST. I would like to hear it. 

Mr. GOKDON. I liave no objection to having it read, except that 
it will take time. 

Mr. WEST. I do not insist, as it is very long. I will read it at my 
desk. 

Mr. GORDON. I will send it to the Senator's desk. Here it is: 

Xew Okleaxs, January 12, 1875. 
Ex-Govenior A. Vookiues. Nciu Orleans: 

After perusal of the official dispatch of General P. H. Sheridan, calling the people 
of the parish of Orleans a set of bandits. I felt it my duty to give you a list of mur- 
derers coniniiTted to the parisli prison duiiug my administration as captain of the 
same, witli their jxditical status. 

Charles Earlo, white, radical, ex-policeman; John Garvey, ■nhite, radical, ex-po- 
liceman ; Dido Baptiste. wliite, radical; Francis Martin," white, radical; Peter 
Lewis, colored, radical: Oscar Bums, white man; Beauregard Jamisson, ctdored, 
radical ; B(d) West, colored, radical ; Wm. Bradley, colored, railical ; Austin Smith , 
white, railical, on tlio jjolice force when coniiiiilti'il murder; E. A. Giroux, white 
radical; J.aiiics O'Brien, white, radical, pardoned by Ivelloig, now serving term for 
robbery: John Bennett, white, radical, on tlie police when he killed the man, now 
in State-house: Chas. Fo.ssier, white, radical; J. P. Collins, white, radical, from 
Tangipahoa; Ed. West, white, radical; Samuel Barrett, white, radical, i)ardoiu'd by 
Kellogg; B. F. Rivers, wliito, radical; George Hays, colored, radical; liichard Bell, 
colored, radical: John Jones, colored, radical; J. F. Domingues, white, radical; 
Jos. Perera, wliite, radical; W. Reed, white, radical; Jeremiah Fox, white, radi- 
cal; Geo. Little.jolru, colored, radical; Thos. Mun-y, white, radical; James Galla- 
gher, white, radical; J. M. Roach, white man; Joe May. alias Joe Neil, colored, 
radical; Timothy Hays, wliite man, Micha^'l Aspill. white man: Peter Johnson, 
colored, radical; Peter Gore, colored, radical ; Kobt. Desj)ercio, white nu»n; H. M. 
Riddle, white man; Gabe Beebe, white man: Xelson Severin, colored, radical; 
Gust. McCarthy, colored, radical ; Jordan Allen, c(dored, radical ; Laura Hanis, 
colored woman; Corinne Scott, colored woman; Maria Pnrcell, white woman; 
Ephraira Morris, colored, radical ; John Garrett, white man ; A. W. Kiuchen, white, 
radical; M. Maloney, white man; Alex. Johnson, colored, radical ; Anne John.son, 
colored woman ; W". R. Adams, white man ; S. M. Williams, white man ; Charity 
Jackson, olored woman; Andrew Camp, colored, radical; John Pierce, colored, 
radical ; Jules James, colored, radical ; Cecelia Mason, colored woman ; Louis Kline, 
white, radical, Peter Mc Williams, colored, i-adical: Bart Touro. white man ; A. C. 
Billings, white, radical, Ed. Lee, colored, radical ; Ed. Burns, white. radical: Alex> 
!Newton, white, radical; Moses Harvey, colored, radical; Roman Marmoget, white 



17 

man; Antonio Esquino, colored, radical; Norbert Collins, colored, radical; Emma 
Ferdinand, colored woman; M. Ambrovicli, white; George Eugene, colored, radi- 
cal; Franci.s Auffiej', alias Jordi, colored, radical; Thomas North, white man ; 
William Burke, white man. 
The above is a correct list to the 1st of December, 1874. 
Tours, respectfully, 

J. A. EEEMAUX. 
Captain Parish Prigon. 
The following list should have been published with the list of murderers commit- 
ted to the pai ish prison while said piisun wa.s under the administration of Captain 
J. A. Fremeaux. The accompanyini; list, through a press of business, was forgot- 
ten, and was not handed to the press at the time the other portion of the list was 
given. 

W. H. BPvOWK. 

Mike McXamara. white man ; T.J. Xewhouse, white, radical ; Jesse Woods, col- 
ored, radical ; Henry Hamilton, colored, radical ; William Dennison, white man ; 
.John Martina, white man ; John Lewis, white, radical ; Hortense Hall, colored 
woman : Ed. Coleman, white man ; William A. Miller, white man ; Henry 
Miller, white man; Richard Bany. white man; Philip Smith, colored, radical; 
Gruillaume Blessey, white, radical ; Jacques Delmare, white, radical ; Gus Butler, 
<-olored, radical ; Lucy Scott, colored woman ; Henry Pembeiton, white man from 
Ked Kiver Parish ; W. A. Dill, white, radical, from Natchitoches ; A. M. Duport, 
colored, radical ; A.J. Hortaire, colored, radical ; Louis Evergne, colored, radical ; 
Anatole Jacquet, white man ; James Clarke, white boy ; Jules Maguon, white man ; 
Cage Ferdinand, colored, radical ; William Thomas, colored, radical ; Kichard Mass, 
colored, radical. 

Mr. GORDON. It has been charged, repeatedly charged, that law 

would not be executed by southern democrats. I wish to have read 

. a telegram from the governor of Georgia, giving the official record.s 

of pardons and executions in Georgia under I3ullock's republican 

and Smith's democratic administration. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

Atl.vxta, GEOuciiA, January 27, 1875. 
-JoHX B. Gordon, 

United States Senator : 
Two white men convicted of murder on circumstantial evidence and in peniten- 
tiary for life have been pardoned by mo. I have conuinited death peii:ilty to im- 
prisonment for life in four cases, two white and two colored. Ten uegnics and six 
■ white porsdiis liavi- betMi executed during my administration for murder. During 
Govcrniii IJulldck .s lulniinistralioii forty-six persons were pardoned for murder ; 
the deatli iimalty was coiriiiiutc-d to imju-isonment for life in eighteen cases, and 
two ])(is()iis were executed for murder. The records do not specify color during 
Governiu- IluUock's adniiiiislriition. Whole numberof panlous granted by Bullock 
for all dUcik cs froiu .July 4, l.-^tis, to October 30, 1871, was four hundred and sixty- 
four whole paidons for all often.ses. By myself from .Tanuaiy 1-2, 187d, to present 
time forty-seven, a majority of those last negroes. 

JAMES M. SMITH. 

Thus it will be seen that under republican rule there were four 
hundred and sixty-four pardons issued to crimiiuils, and under demo- 
cratic rule for tiie same time forty-seven pardons were issued, 
nu)stly to negroes. Sixteen executions have taken place under demo- 
cratic rule in Georgia, and for the same time under republican rule 
only two ; although Bullock had the entire machinery of the courts 
in his hands, appointing all officers from chief justice to justice of 
the peace. 

Let the list I hold in my hand be incorporated in my remarks. It 
is a record of thirty-one liappy recipients of Kellogg's overwhelming- 
executive clemency, by virtue of which these murderers, thieves, and 
rapers, were turned loose upon society : 

Osman Ledoux, of Saint Landry, shooting into a dwelling house, and sentenced 
to six months ; Jacob Haberlin, oi" Orleans, robbery ; Sam Bowman, of East Baton 
Rouge, robbery, sentcn(^c'd to twenty-eight years; William H. Page, of New Or- 
leans, manslaughter, siuti'nicd to two years"; .James Davis, of New Orleans, lar- 
ceny, sentimced to eighteen months ; James Hackett, of East Baton Rouge, man- 

2 A 



18 

slaughter ; Martin CaiilfieW and Merryinau Caulfleld, of East Feliciana, miu-der ; 
Samuel Green, of Caddo, assault with intent to kill; Levi Hill, of Lafourche, lar- 
ceny ; Henry S. Utz, of Madison, attempting to biibe a witness ; Loiii.s Edward, of 
Tberville, theft; F. M. Henley, of Caddo, murder; Angelo Prudhomme, of Saint 
Landry, murder; Palmer Dickson and Hugh Dickson, of Bossier, shooting and kill- 
ing Thomas C. Kirk; Keuhen Red, murder; Isaac Sadler, of Claiborne, shoot- 
ing a COW; Elijah Aubrey, of Claiborne, murder; Jacob Alexander, burglarj'; 
Dicey Koysden, of "VTebster, receiving stolen goods; William Brown, of Assump- 
tion, assault and battery ; D. M. Brousard, of Lafayette, larceny ; John "Wallace, of 
Saint Landry, rape ; Thomas McGuire, of Orleans, entering with intent to steal ; 
George TVilliams, of Orleans, burglary ; John J. McCort, of Orleans, burglary ; 
Mary Williams, of Orleans, embezzlement; James O'Brien, of Orleans, manslaugh- 
ter; Samuel Bf 11. of Bienville, murder; Edward A. Higgins, of Orleans, larceny; 
James H. Boler and Valentine Smith, concealing stolen property. 

Mr. President, liow long is our Titus Gates and liis confederates to 
inflame the public inind %vith liis marvelous stories of white conspir- 
acies and of the killing of negroes for amusement in the face of these 
facts, which record his condemnation? In all the range of history, 
civilized or barbaric, where will yon find such an infinitude of prov- 
ocations as the southern people have had since the war? They 
have been the subjects of misconstruction and the victims of slanders, 
of rapine, of insult, and of bad government. Is it not true that these 
adventurers have i)lundered our treasuries, stolen our railroads, and 
burdened us with debt 1 Where is Bullock, the former carpet-bag 
governor of Georgia ? A fugitive from justice in the Dominion of 
Canada. Where is Foster Blodgett, who Avas elected to the Senate in 
violation of law by a rei)ublican legislature, who, in charge of a rail- 
road, the property of the State, which now ])ays regularly into the 
treasury .*)300,000 per aniuim, stole or wasted not only its income, but 
run down its machinery and left it burdened with debt ; and by 
numberless frauds enriched himself and his confederates ? Where is 
he ? Safe in the province of South Carolina. Where is Littlefield, of 
North Carolina ? 

Mr. PATTERSON. Will the Senator from Georgia allow me to ask 
him a question ? 

The PRESIDENT jn-o tempore. Does the Senator from Georgia 
yield to the Senator from South Carolina ? 

Mr. GORDON. I have no objection to answering a question. 

Mr. PATTERSON. I do not propose to make a speech. I just 
want to ask the Senator a (piestion. 

Mr. GORDON. Go ahead. 

Mr. PATTERSON. I understood the Senator to say that Mr. 
Blodgett is safe in South C'arolina. Now, if Mr. Blodgett is amenable 
to the laws of Georgia, they can get him, and why do they not send 
for him ? 

Mr. GORDON. I think the effort has been made ; but I am not cer- 
tain. I l^iow the governor made requisition for Bullock; but he 
could not be fouud. As to Littlefield, I learn an effort was made to 
secure him, but he is still safe in Florida. 

Mr. PATTERSON. I ask the Senator from Georgia if they ever 
made a requisition on the governor of South Carolina for Mr. Blod- 
gett. 

Mr. GORDON. Foster Blodgett did not dare to go back 

Mr. PATTERSON. Answer my question. 

Mr. GORDON. If the Senator will give me time I will tell him 
what I know about it. 

Mr. PATTERSON. You cannot answer it. 

Mr. GORDON. I know that there was great anxiety to get Mr. 
Blodgett back to testify, but he has never returned to Georgia, and 



19 

I think it was proposed to give Mm a pnssport back withonfc arrest ; 
but I am not sure aboat that. 

Mr. PATTERSON. That is not the way to get a criminal from one 
State to another. If Georgia wants Mr. BJodgett, let them call on the 
governor of South Carolina for him. 

Mr. GORDOX. I did not give wav for a speech. 

Mr. PATTERSON. They can get him very quick. 

Mr. GORDON. Mr. President, I simply state facts, so far as I know 
them. Blodgett had possession of the railroad belonging to Georgia. 
He retained most of its income, which under the management of a' 
Senator upon the floor and his associates now amounts as rental 
to the sum of $300,000 per annum. Blodgett left engines, cars, and 
track worn oiit, and an immense debt upon it, amounting, I think, with 
fraudulent contracts to at least half a million dollars. He left Geor- 
gia when Bullock left it. 

Mr. SPRAGUE. I would like to ask the Senator from Georgia a 
question. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from Georgia 
yield ? 

Mr. GORDON. Certainly. 

Mr. SPRAGUE. What Senator in this Chamber is interested in 
the railroad now ? 

Mr. GORDON. I would rather not answer that question. The 
Senator knows to whom' I refer. He is an honorable man and the 
rental is regularly paid into the State treasury. 

But, Mr. President, the interruptions have led me from my argu- 
ment. Why stop to talk of Blodgett ? What of others who are loudest 
in their denunciations of the South ? What of Kellogg himself, the 
governor par excellence, around whom gathers all the power of the 
Executive and of the American Senate ? He now holds place which 
your own committee declares was acquired by fraud, while he de- 
nounces as murderers the people whose lawful power he usurps, and 
opens the prison doors and deluges society with his i)ardoued crim- 
inals. What of Ludeling, his chief justice, the man on whose 
slioulders hangs the ei'mine of the hightest judicial oiBce in the State 
of Louisiana ? Condemned, not by democrats, but by the highest 
judicial authority known to this Government, as guilty of a gross 
fi'aud and a breach of a sacred trust. What of Hawkins, his judge 
of the superior district court ? Indicted, not at the instance of the 
conservatives of Louisiana, but of Ex-Governor Madison Wells, the 
president of the Kellogg returning board, and a true bill found by a 
grand jury for embezzlement. What of the retiuning board f Con- 
demned by a rei)ublican connuittee of a republican Congress as guilty 
of the grossest frauds and of an outrage upon the rights of the voters 
of that State. ' "• 

Sir. President, I will not run down the list any farther. Suffice it 
to say that this is the class from which governors and legislators and 
Judges and tnembers of Congress are manufactured to order for a de- 
fenseless peoi)le. 

Sir, these are terrible truths ; but they stand adjudicated by the 
committee of this Senate, or by the highest judicial tribunal, or by 
the logic of recorded and undisputed facts. 

I am speaking now of the bitter provocations to which the people 
of all the Southern States have been subjected, in view of which all 
fair-minded men will judge them. 

I hold in my hand an accounr of the destruction of the Borun family 
in Mississippi — his house and his cliildren burned, himself mui-dered. 



20 

aud Iii.s iimoceut, defenseless wife outraged— I must be pardoned for 
speaking plainly— by six negroes, aud found dead after the atrocious 
deed. This crime, so shocking, which was almost unknown to that race 
until they were taught hostility to the whites, is becoming now so 
frequent that it would fill with frenzy the most stolid community 
upon earth. 

I have a list of such cases well authenticated ; but it is useless to 
produce it. Let me say, injustice to the negro, that the increasing 
frequency of these occurrences is due not so much to an in-bred bru- 
tality as to that which has been acquired by the cultivation of his 
worst passions. Let me not be misunderstood. I do not charge, nor 
do I believe, that even the bad men who assume to control his political 
conduct countenance such crimes. This however is true. An ignorant 
race, just emancipated from slavery, daily taught hatred to the south- 
ern whites and by appeals to color prejudices made audacious aud 
aggressive in their hostility, will not long bo restrained by considera- 
tions which move an enlightened and cultured race. 

Ah, sir, is it just, in ^iew of these terrible truths, which canuot be 
disproved, to judge a people assassins aud murderers because of dis- 
turbances iuevitable to such a situation ? Is it just to condemn a 
great people — aud I profess to belong to a gieat peo))le. and no tineg 
of shame has ever yet mantled my cheek because 1 belong to that 
people — is it just, I ask, to condemn them upon these iuevifahle iso- 
lated outbreaks, however wrong or bloody; upon these fitful vents of 
passion, however extreme? I repeat, tlieir ])r<)vociitions have l)een 
infinite. The black race arrayed against them by self-seeking politi- 
cal tricksters, slandered by tliosc wliochiim to represent them, placed 
under the ban of a powerful Govennnent, governed by men notori- 
ously corrupt, robbed by adventurers supjiorted by power, and goaded 
to madness bv brutal license. 

Mr. PEASE. Mr. President 

Mr, GORDON. Mr. President, the Senator from Mississippi occu- 
pied nearly a week pouring out the vials of his wrath upon the 
southern people. I hope I sluill be allowed an hour to defend them. 

The PRESIDENT p>o tempore. Does the Senator from Georgia 
yield to the Senator from Mississippi? 

Mr. GORDON. Excuse me ; I would rather not. 

The PRESIDENT j;ro tempore. The Senator from Georgia declines 
to yield, and he is entitled to the fioor. 

Mr. GORDON. Let me proceed. I have already siiown by official 
records that, so far from all the murders in Louisiana being committed 
Ity white democrats, more than two-thirds in N(!W Orleans were by 
republicans. I have further shoAvn that wholesale pardons were 
issued by Kellogg. Also, how much more certainly the laws were en- 
forced in»Georgia under the rule of the i)eople, whose every conceivable 
interest demands their enforcement, than under P>ullock's adminis- 
tration. These facts were adduced from oi^cial records. I wish now 
to refer to the testimony of Mr. J. P. Sonthworth, who is the present 
special assistant attorney-general of the United States in Alabama, 
to prove that a white man in that much-abused State is as easily con- 
victed as a negro; that the law is as readily enforced as in a ny portion 
of the United States ; and that the facts drawn from this high official — 
a most respectable republican source — utterly explode the baseless 
fabrications or the ludicrous absurdities and phantoms with which 
our Alabama ''Titus Oales" filled his imagination. Sir, what does 
this Federal official say ? I take an extract from the telegraphic 
report : 



21 

He ■went to Alabama fi'om Uliiiois in 1868; that he was and had always been a 
Tt'pnblican. and that he had spoken during the last campaign in Selma for the 
lepiiblican State ticket. He said that he thought he knew the general condition 
of till- State as well as any one could ; that his official and professional duties took 
him to all parts nf it, and that there was no county in which a republican could not 
live and advocate political principles, even in an offensive manner, without 
molestation. He thought the effect of sending troops to the State was injurious to 
the people aud the State, and there had been no time when thej- were needed, or 
when the country would not have l)een better without them. 

When asked if negroes could vote if troops were not stationed there, he replied 
that he thought it made verv little difference. The negroes would not vote any 
way if they were not massed by their leaders. The negroes had no interest in 
politics, and were simply used by men who could not remain in i)Ower but for the 
negrt) vote. 

In tile face of these facts, what becomes of " Titiis Gates," with 
his monstrous tales of falsehood, his reports of democratic excesses 
and intimidations, his convulsions of terror at the prospect of his own 
martyrdom, and of the necessity for a guard to protect him from the 
democrats ? Charity dictates that we should attribute the.se stories 
of our " Titus " in reference to democratic manias for blood and south- 
ern epidemics of murder to a diseased imagination or insane credu- 
lity rather than to atrocious invention. 

Ah, Mr. President, these modern Titus Oateses all over the South, 
these instigators of race-conflicts, these authors of our woes, have 
prepared and tired their magazine filled with all the combustibles of 
alarm, and have discovered by its light a modern " popish plot" — " a 
new southern rebellion." 

Of all the wild lunacies yet attrilnited to the South, none is com- 
parable to this. A people utterly bankrupted by war and the subse- 
<(uent ills of bad government, their Connuonwealths prostrate and 
desolate, a people armless and powerless in the midst of four mill- 
ions of recently emancipated slaves changed by unscrupulous trick- 
sters from friends to foes ; a people sick of war and strife and panting 
for peace and quiet, a people thus circumstanced on the eve of a new 
reV)eIlion, and who voted overwhelmingly for Horace Greeley aud 
have by confederate votes seut Andrew Johnson to the Senate! 
[Laughter.] 

The first scene of this "plot" I believe was laid in Loui.siana. 

What docs Colonel Morrow say about the new rebellion ? 

1 not only do not believe; but I am absolutely certain, that there will not be at 
any time in I.ouisiann :iny organized or authorized lesistaiue to the General Gov- 
ernment. If tile exiiiessions of the people are to be believed, and I do believe 
them— 

Our virtuous Titus Gates is astounded at the credulity of this 
officer — 

there is a verv sincei'e desire to live quietly under the protection of the Consti- 
tution of the t 'Uited States and enjoy the blessings of the Xational Government, 
But there is no disguising tlie fad, the protection afforded liy the Federal Admin- 
istration to the government of the present State executive is the cause of bitter 
personal and political feeling in the breasts of nineteen-twenti(>ths of the white 
inhabitants of the State. 

Mr. GORDGN. Noav, who is Colonel Morrow? Is he also a ivhite- 
washer ? General Emory says he was selected because of his experi- 
ence and the high confidence reposed in him. What does General 
Sherman say ? 

Headquarters of the Army, 
Saint Louis, Missouri, January 4, 1875. 
This paper is most respectfully forwarded to the Secretary of "War, with a re- 
quest that ho submit it for the personal peiaisal of the President. I know of no 
officer of Colonel Morrow's rank who is better qualified to speak and write of mat- 



22 

ters like this, and his opinions are entitled to great consideration. I profess to 
have some knowledge of the people of that section, both white and black, from a 
long residence among them before the war and several visits since: but I shall not 
intrude my opinion in the confusion in whioh the subject is now enveloped. 

W. T. SHERMAX. 

General. 

Is General Sherman also a "wliiiewasher." He developed a genius 
for war certainly equal to any officer in the Federal Army. Where 
is his superior ? But General Sherman belongs to that class of sol- 
diers whose courage is more conspicuous in battle than in debate. Gen- 
eral Sherman also l)elongs to that class of soldiers who cease to fight 
when the light is over, and piefers the restoration of concord to un- 
ending animosity. 

General Slierman indorses Colonel Morrow's report, not only from 
his knowledge of that officer's competency and high character, but 
from his own personal knowledge of the people of Louisiasia from 
long residence among them. Such was the opinion of General Grant 
when he saw for himself. Such is the opinion of the special assistant 
attorney-general of the United States in Alabama. Such is the opin- 
ion of the republican investigating committee sent to Louisiana, of 
Colonel Morrow, and of General William T. Sherman. Yet there are 
Senators, very few I hope, who still disbelieve any reports that are 
not stained all over with blood and rebellion. They did not believe 
General Grant in 18(57; they do not believe their own committee; 
neither would they believe tliougli one rose from the dead. 

Mr. President, is there no higher and broader i)lain upon which we 
may consider this question ? Are there no causes for the disturb- 
ances at the South other tliantho.se whicli lie upon the surface? 
Has the statesmanship of the country exhausted itself, wlien, deny- 
ing the testimony from the high sources I have mentioned and giving 
credence only to the testinnmy of interested partisans, it proceeds to 
legislate upon the monstrous idea tluvt the southern people are mad 
with an insane hatred of tlie black race and the still more insane 
disregard of every consideration which moves other men ? Is no ap- 
peal to be made to reason and to tlie philosophy of human action. 

Do the southern people diffiir so widelj- from the rest of mankind 
that the laws of action which apply to otiiers are inapplicable to 
them? They have the same instincts of se]f-defcn,se ; the same love 
of self-government, of justice, of humanity, of peace, and of law ; the 
same pride of race; the same devotion to liberty and detestation of 
tyranny whicli have marked the Anglo-Saxon race and crowned it 
witli honor at every step of its progress and in every quarter of the 
globe. Sir, Avhat does reason teach us ? Are the southern people so 
blinded tliat they would seek to make an enemy of the negro, upon 
whose labor and good-will all their prosperity depends '1 Are they so 
lost to every imjjulse of humanity that they should seek to destroy 
a race to whose fidelity during the wai", when an army w.as in their 
midst with freedom written upon its banners, they intrusted with 
perfect confidence their wives, their homes, and their children — a race 
which, faithful, docile, and law-abiding by nature, has only been made 
arrogant, aggressive, and lawless under the tutelage of bad men in 
their midst ? Such assumptions are neither suggested by reason nor 
supported by fact. 

Where then is the source of the wide-spread discontent at the 
South ? Sir, the early history of this country ought to fiirnish an 
answer. Our fathers pleaded in justification of revolution the fact 
that the King of Great Britain had sent among them judges depend- 
ent upon his will, and swarms of men not interested in their welfare, 



23 

to hold the offices, to levy the taxes, to harass the people aud to eat 
out their substance. These dpiiressions are no less galling to us than 
they were to our fathers. It is not an answer to say that these men 
are subjects of the same Government. That was true in the case of 
the colonists. The Senator from Indiana [Mr. Mortox] says that we 
ought not to object ; that the people of his State invite settlerfe from 
the East and from other sections, aud give them offices. I presume 
the Senator waits, e%'en if they are honest, until they secure a home 
and become domiciled, before he makes of them governors, judges, 
and members of Congress. But with all the Senator's hospitality 
and all the hospitality of Indiaua — and I join him in paying the very 
highest tribute to his people — with all her hospitality, if that State 
should I'eceive to her contidence and her homes such men as I have 
described, her folly would be equaled only by that of the man who, 
according to ^sop, warmed the viper in his bosom only to receive its 
fangs. 

But to return. Our fathers appealed to their English brethren, to 
their native "justice and magnanimity, and conjured them by the ties 
of a common kindied to disavow those usurpations ; " but in vain. 
Shall the apiieals of the people of Louisiana, by the same ties of 
kindi-ed and to the sense of justice of the northern people, go un- 
heeded ? Sir, I do not believe it. I do not believe that the descend- 
ants of Adams, of Morris, of Franklin, of John Hancock, and of Put- 
nam, will turn a deaf ear to the ajipealof the descendants of Henry, of 
Jefferson, of Madison, of Lowndes, of Marion, and of Pinckney, who, 
in the hour of distress, rushed to their rescue with the cry, " The cause 
of Boston is the cause of all!" 

But I am again reminded that there are those who hear me who 
cannot understand how one who but a few years ago embraced 
with every liber of his nature and every throb of his heart the cause 
of his people and his section can now with equal earnestness plead 
for the peace and the unity of his whole country. They do not un- 
derstand liow once enemies, we should ever be friends. They do not 
understand how those who are truest to convictions may also be truest 
to plighted faith. Be it so. It is not to such I speak. 

Now, sir, to return to an analysis of the causes which produce the 
anomalous condition of affairs in some of the Southern States. These 
States are governed by those who are not only strangers to our sym- 
pathies aiul hostile to our interests, but who are often corrupt. No 
more corrupt governments can be found upon cartli. There is, sir, 
no greater truth, no more philosophic maxim — and the statemanship 
which ignoresit is sinqjly empirical — than ihat the character of a (jov- 
ei'nment setisibly affects the character of the citizen. It is as natural for 
a good or bad government to produce a good or bad citizen by 
a law of human nature, as for peculiar soils to produce certain 
growths l)y a law of creation. You may prosti'ate the forest by a 
whirlwind or storm, Init the same soil and climate will produce the 
same forest again. So you may excite civil commotion and sweep 
away a whole generation ; but the same bad government Avill pro- 
duce another generation like it. There is no interest, jjublic or 
private, whether of property, of society, or of civilization, which gov- 
cnnnent does not at some point touch and affect. When government 
is i)ure and just aud righteously administered, private virtue is 
strengthened and the citizen is elevated ; but when government be- 
comes corrupt, when judicial frauds and official embezzlements become 
common ; when public theft is galvanized into respectable thrift by 
the glitter of official station; when political integrity is banished 



24 

from public place, and pollution is left — wherever government makes 
its track, then the foundations of society give way and all its conserv- 
ative forces are dissolved. The same condition of public aftairs would 
produce like turbulence in any State in this Union. Give to each 
State the government of Louisiana; a governor forced in office by 
such means, with judge and jury dependent upon his will, the high- 
est jiulicial officers impeached for fraud or embezzelment, the voice 
of the people silenced by a returning board convicted of the grossest 
frauds, intelligence and virtue rej)ressed and ignorance and vice 
crowned as administrators of law, offices tilled with political adven- 
tuixjrs; with such corruptions and such defiance of public sentiment, 
and how long would it be before we should witness throughout this 
land a scene of unbi'idled license, a perfect saturnalia of sin and 
shame and death. 

But, sir, we have one hope left. Talleyrand said that he knew one 
who was wiser than Voltaire, had more understanding than Napo- 
leon and all ministers, and that one was piulic opinion. 

Sir, there is a great public opinion in these United States — an 
American sentiment which is the hope of Ijouisiana and the talisman 
of the South. And in the name of Louisiana and of a common inher- 
itance of self-government, I app(;al from tlu' l>ar of the Senate to the 
bar of that American sentiment. It is higher than senates, more 
powerful than ])arties. It will not permit us longer to hold out hope 
to Louisiana only to doom her to death. Itwill not permit us longer 
to whisper in her ear the high-sounding words of self-government and 
of constitutional law, while tliese wonts mean to her but the])()n\pous 
trap])ings which cover the dead ])0(ly <d' a ])rostrate Commonwealth. 
It will not permit us to longer hold in vassalage a large body of our 
fellow-con litrymen, who arc vindicated l)y their own words and acts 
and by your repu))lican comnuttee, and who, when tlieir trials ami 
persecutions and wrongs are known, what ever may liave been their 
mistakes, their follies, or their crimes, will stand vindicated before 
the bar of all the future, and of Him wlio shall judge us all, as fiu- 
nishing an exampli' of heroic endurance and of patient forl)earance 
under wrong unparalleled in history and lustrous in desjiair. 

Ibit, sir, there is another general truth which ought lutt to be 
overlooked in discussing the unhappy condition of tliosc^ States ami 
the causes which produce it. It is this: That nothing but commo- 
tion, distu'dei-, and blight can be the lot of any people whi)sc rulers 
retain power by arraying race against race and lal)or against capital. 
He who protects labor against unjust laws and iniquitous exactions 
is a benefactor as well as a wise law-maker; but he Avho for the sake 
of office would poison the minds of the ignorant negro laborer against 
the laml-owners of the country, has the temerity to fire a magazine- 
over which eight millions of people are sleeping. 

The effect of such a course with us is not only to disorganize tlic 
labor of the South, thus destroying its prosperity, but with this 
the market which the South hitherto furnished for the i)roducts of 
the East and the West. It not only makes linaneial success impos- 
silde with us, but it affects the financial condition of the whole coun- 
try, for the South can no longer be the great consumer. These polit- 
ical intermeddlers are therefcn-e indirectly contributing to the busi- 
ness stagnation of the whole country, stopping mills, paralyzing 
enterprise, and bringing starvation to the white laborer of the North, 
while they train the black laborer of the South in the art of keeping 
them in office. 

Not only so ; but they are thus exciting the bad passions of this 



25 

black laborer and provoking a conflict too fearful to contemplate. Is " 
it statesmanskip to support such men in place and continue such pol- 
icies by the whole influence and power of the Government? Such a 
conflict will never come in the South except through the agency of 
the men who have no interest in the South except to grow rich from 
its offices. 

These, Mr. President, are questions of the greatest moment and 
would tax the wisest statesmanship of this country or this age. This 
conflict of labor and capital is one full of danger. It filled Paris 
with fire and blood and terror. It appalls kings, shakes thrones, 
threatens the peace of nations and the stability of institutions. 

I had desired to discuss this i)ortion of the subject at much greater 
length, but the lateness of the hour forbids. 

Mr. President, siu-ely the Senate will not longer insist upon a policy 
toward the South so hostile to the material interests of the whole 
country and to the genius of representative government. Surely in 
the face of the overwhebaing testimony of those who have niost 
intimate knowledge of our condition and the least interest in misrep- 
resenting us, and in view of the great political maxims familiar to 
all, which pour their floods of light upon the causes of all the disor- 
ders in our midst — surely the Seuate will not fail to see these causes, 
nor insist upon retaining these men upon the transparent plea of 
"Titus Oates" that he has discovered a "plot "' or new rebellion. 

Whatever may be the action of the Senate, I do not doubt the ver- 
dict of the people. In the darkest hour of our distress I have never 
lost hope that tlie American people would, when the facts were 
known, no longer by the strong arm of power subject the South to 
the insatiate rapacity of her slanderers. I have steadfastly believed 
that the day would come when any man, wherever circumstances, 
education, and conviction may have placed him in the late war, who 
would raise liis voice in the cause of honest government, of justice, 
of concord, and of unity, would crush through the thin wall of pas- 
sion which has too long divided us and find a listening audience in 
every section of this great country. 

And now 1 tiiink I sliall commit no sacrilege if I conclude what I 
have had to say in the w'ords of Him, in obedience to whose mandate 
there is at the same time the highest statesmansliip and the simplest 
justice, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them." 

3 A 



O'' 



;^ 



<:- t- i. 



^ 



4' U V.,-^ 



X,?-*^ /^ 




Q^^^T-^^f'm.A- /-. 



y V. 



u 



C' wC 



LBAa't2 



